Outside of like ovy, Malkin and datsyuk and few forwards Russia isn't anything special at all. Its been awhile since Russia is been really good.

So outside of a few former NHL mvps, perhaps the best two way player in the game, a Vezina winner, they're not really all that good?

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I'm not arguing Russia is a world elite, because I also think they don't have the right build or the necessary chemistry to finish above the Americans, Canadians, Swedes, or Finns, and by the time 2018 comes around, I think Switzerland will be better, at least as a unit, by some distance (at this point, I think the Swiss are at least on par with them). But the fact that they lost to the Finns and don't have an all-star defense isn't the reason they're not one of the best anymore.

Define one of the best? Top 3,no, top 5? Yeah, sounds about right, they've falling bback over the years no doubt.quote name="thecoffeecake" post="1246566" timestamp="1392871148"]

That's called a weakness. Every team has one.

I'm not arguing Russia is a world elite, because I also think they don't have the right build or the necessary chemistry to finish above the Americans, Canadians, Swedes, or Finns, and by the time 2018 comes around, I think Switzerland will be better, at least as a unit, by some distance (at this point, I think the Swiss are at least on par with them). But the fact that they lost to the Finns and don't have an all-star defense isn't the reason they're not one of the best anymore. [/quote]

Actually ovy was the worst player for Russians. Malkin was indecisive and seemed to be off. Datsyuk was fantastic. But i guess bob, voynov, belov, tarasenko and big nichush nothing special? Where is bar for special players?

I'm not arguing Russia is a world elite, because I also think they don't have the right build or the necessary chemistry to finish above the Americans, Canadians, Swedes, or Finns, and by the time 2018 comes around, I think Switzerland will be better, at least as a unit, by some distance (at this point, I think the Swiss are at least on par with them). But the fact that they lost to the Finns and don't have an all-star defense isn't the reason they're not one of the best anymore.

Come on dude swiss are solid, but are on par with team russia? Lets get real here, losing to latvia isnt helping their world ranking either.

Where is bar for special players? Its called some depth, who you named wasn't no one special. They have forward depth no one is denying that. None on defense. And point is, while other countries are moving forward, Russia hasn't moved with them. Over the past few Olympics they haven't bene anything special.

Actually ovy was the worst player for Russians. Malkin was indecisive and seemed to be off. Datsyuk was fantastic. But i guess bob, voynov, belov, tarasenko and big nichush nothing special? Where is bar for special players?

So what are Russia's sports fans going to do now? My guess would be that they do not pick a side in the remaining men's/women's hockey games but instead focus on other sports, but what's left for them? I guess they have that girl in the figure skating. I'm sure that entire country needs some sort of mood elevator and fast.

Would "Nordic" have been the proper term?

Yes.

Maybe according to the way you see the region. How a non-political area like that is defined is determined by cultural and individual perception. Finland is often included in "Scandinavia", as are Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

If you exclude Finland from a definition of Scandinavia, then it would either be on a basis of physical geography (i.e, not being on the Scandinavian Peninsula, in which case you must exclude Denmark, as well as Iceland and the Faroe Islands), or on a cultural basis, as Finnish is a non-"Scandinavian" (Northern Germanic) language (it's Uralic). In that case, you must also exclude Sami people that live in large parts of Sweden and Norway.

Edit: I could never remember if "Sami" or "Lapp" was the derogatory term. Turns out it's the former.

I'd also be interested in hearing what people in that region have to say.

People in that region would include me.

I think we can disregard the 80 000 Sami from the definition of a 15+ million region.

I've always seen Scandanavia as separate from Finland. As you pointed out both ethincally and geographically they are different.

Aren't Finnish people ethnically closer to Hungarians than Norwegians and the Swedes? I have heard many times Hungarian is the only language that is remotely close to Finnish and I believe both originated in Asia (hence Uralic) and were chased out years ago by the Huns and Mongolian hordes.

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Where is bar for special players? Its called some depth, who you named wasn't no one special. They have forward depth no one is denying that. None on defense. And point is, while other countries are moving forward, Russia hasn't moved with them. Over the past few Olympics they haven't bene anything special.

And what has Russia won over the last three or four?Nada. So much for expert right? A vezina in a shortened season, who hasnt kept that short play up at all this year really either. Russia's defense is slim pickings for sure.

And your the expert yourself, " two young rising stars". Maybe in the next 2-3 years, Nich hasn't really lite anything up at all. A young Tarasenko, future looks bright, if he can be trusted and consistent. But being a 20-30 goal scorer isn't a star. Your term of "star" seems mediocre at best.

As a norwegian, I can categorically put this misconception to rest. Scandinavia is Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Period.

Feel free to check out the wikipedia pages for "scandinavia" for any of the three countries, or any old-school written encyclopedia for that matter. On the norwegian wikipedia page for "skandinavia" there's even a chapter about this common misconception.

The culture in the three scandinavian countries is very similar, as are the languages. (We can normally all understand eachother.) Iceland, while being full of emigrated scandinavians, no longer fits into this group as their language has changed significantly (in addition to their physical location ofcourse). Finland does have a scandinavian origin minority on the west coast, and still officially uses two languages, but 95% of the population uses Finnish primarily.

Bringing up the Sami people seems pretty irrelevant, as they have always been a tiny nomadic (which is why I'll let you get away with writing "large parts of scandinavia") people with completely different language and culture from the rest the peninsula. Traditionally they have lived all the way up north, where hardly anyone else lived when the concept of "scandinavia" was born, more or less seperate from the general population.

It is true that parts of Finland and Estonia have been under Scandinavian "rule" during certain periods of history however. And while I am no expert on the matter, I believe you can say that about areas in England and even France as well.. The Vikings were pretty crazy.